Clare Frances Buckle : painter, printmaker
I was trained in display and exhibition design and spent my earlier years designing exhibitions for other artists so it’s ironic that the tables have turned and I find myself now as one of the exhibitors.
I also trained in TV and film set design but worked mostly in the theatre and so am equally at home building six foot candlesticks out of plastic drainage pipe, sculpting gargoyles in polystyrene or painting flats and floor clothes to look like wall paper, wood grain or patterned carpet. Research into décor is important with each production, as is the director’s ideas about performance. For example, I had to design a set for a production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and the director wanted to remain faithful to the 1962 original so, as a designer, you have to consider what the antagonists’ house would be like. I thought that, as it was lived in by an academic and his wife who both like a drink and were not likely to be into DIY it would not be fashionably decorated. So not only do you have to think about 1960’s décor but also a house owned by people who might care little about cleanliness, tidiness or ownership. The newspaper review said ‘the designer, Clare Buckle has built a frowzy, unkempt set that’s definitely home to Martha and George.’
For this Dorset Art Week I have been working on a series of semi-abstract paintings, the theme of which is, underwater. I like the translucent appearance of watercolour and I also paint from light to dark so it suits my style but I mix in a lot of mark making I learnt in set design. I also like to bring in other elements in contrast with that translucency. I use acrylic inks as I find them to be extremely vibrant against the watercolour and I have returned to the way I drew at college with pen and ink as I find the structural nature works well with the looseness in the use of watercolour and flowing inks. I always use St Cuthberts Mill Waterford 100% cotton because I like the way the colours flow and soak in.
Because I am used to working with my hands I have taken to printmaking recently and am also working on a series of hand coloured screen prints based
around city living. I am influenced by growing up, going to college and working in London but also with the way we interact with each other in urban areas. I am using a figure style that will be very familiar as it is used in Egyptian art. I have always admired the simplicity of these figures and, in researching, I found that the reason they depict the entire body was because they wanted to be whole for the afterlife. This doesn’t explain the profiled face and I haven’t found a reason for this. For me, that combination shows us to be exactly as we are.
I hope you come and see us all at Weymouth Old Town hall. We shall be open daily from 11am ’til 6pm from 24thMay until 8thJune. There will be some interesting and original artworks on shown during Dorset Art Weeks 2014.
